Table 1.

Number of neurons positive for AVP and OT immunoreactivity and percentage of AVP‐ir and OT‐ir neurons co‐expressing RXFP3 mRNA in the PVN

	PaLM		PaDC		PaMP		PaV
Peptide	Total cells	% RXFP3+	Total cells	% RXFP3+	Total cells	% RXFP3+	Total cells	% RXFP3+
AVP‐ir	73.6 ± 5.3	99.6 ± 0.2	4.8 ± 0.8	97.9 ± 2.1	17.4 ± 2.4	98.2 ± 1.0	15.2 ± 1.8	97.7 ± 1.1
OT‐ir	44.0 ± 4.2	97.9 ± 0.8	17.5 ± 2.9	97.4 ± 1.1	19.9 ± 2.1	99.1 ± 0.6	48.9 ± 4.6	99.2 ± 0.4

The total number of neurons/cells represents the mean ± SEM of the neurons containing peptide immunoreactivity; and % RXFP3+ is the percentage of these neurons with AVP or OT immunoreactivity and RXFP3 mRNA, as assessed in the outlined subnuclei in Fig. 7, in 30‐μm‐thick coronal brain sections collected between 1.72 and 1.80 mm caudal to bregma from six rats. Abbreviations: AVP, arginine vasopressin; ir, immunoreactivity; OT, oxytocin; PaDC, dorsal cap of the PVN; PaLM, lateral magnocellular part of the PVN; PaMP, medial parvocellular part of the PVN; PaV, ventral part of the PVN; and PVN, paraventricular nucleus.